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A year ago, few Canadians outside of hardcore swimming fans knew the name Penny Oleksiak.

Now everyone does.

It all changed at the Rio Olympics last summer when Oleksiak became a national sporting star, both because of her winning ways and her winning personality. Not surprisingly, the coverage of her races and the efforts of other Canadian swimmers at the recent world championships in Hungary attracted more coverage than has been the case in recent years.

That what the Olympics, and major international competitions, do for our athletes. We learn their stories, we follow their endeavours and, through victory and defeat, we identify with their efforts and often begin to follow their sports more enthusiastically. That’s how R.J. Barrett became part of the mainstream conversation this past month for his leadership of the Canadian under-19 basketball team. Gold medals get attention.

In the same way, while it may not seem that way right now, people are going to fall in love with both the process of choosing Canada’s men’s hockey team for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and almost certainly fall in love with the team.

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Well, particularly if they win gold, sure.

We may hardly know anything about the team right now, aside from the fact Sean Burke is in charge and Willie Desjardins, not Mike Babcock, will be coaching. The process of player selection actually begins in August, and will go on right up until the team that will compete in South Korea leaves North America next winter.

A lot of time, too much time, has been spent bemoaning the fact that NHL players won’t be made available for the ’18 Games. Indeed, there have been reports in recent weeks that maybe, just maybe, the NHL and the players’ association can still cut a deal to let Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Alexander Ovechkin, Patrick Kane and others skate for their respective countries in Pyeongchang.

It’s unlikely those reports had any basis in fact at all. Indeed, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been firm on that for months, and NHLPA boss Donald Fehr, who failed to get player participation included in the last collective agreement, made no indication whatsoever that the union was willing to engage in negotiations over the issue.

It’s often stated as if it was a fact that having the NHL involved is the preferred situation, and the one most likely to result in a memorable Olympic tournament. Those who say that tend to have amnesia or intentionally ignore the fact that the Lake Placid, Calgary, Albertville and Lillehammer Games all produced exciting tournaments, just as compelling as any of the five that featured NHL players.

Folks, it’s going to be fascinating watching Burke and Desjardins put together a team over the next seven months, evaluating potential candidates at a wide variety of international tournaments. Players are going to be as motivated or possibly more motivated to make the Canadian team, and other teams, as any NHLers would be, and their stories will be as compelling or quite probably more so.

It’s time for people to at least open their minds to the possibility that they may end up preferring the Olympics without the NHL. One major advantage is that it may create a stronger competition because hockey countries other than Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden and Finland may find themselves more capable of vying for medals, because the difference in talent won’t be as significant as it is when NHL players make those five countries nearly unbeatable to the rest of the world.

Best-on-best hockey is a concept that often produces terrific results, but it’s not guaranteed. Sochi, for example, was a colossal bore. Equally intriguing can be the way in which various federations build teams for important competitions without access to their best players.

Canadians, it seems, fuss over not having NHLers more than other country, primarily because people of a certain vintage in particular are familiar with the frustration of being beaten by other, sometimes lesser, hockey countries at events when Canada doesn’t have its best players. Remember, that’s why we pulled out of Olympic hockey entirely at one point.

Well, get over it. Without Crosby et al, Canada may not dominate the Pyeongchang tournament. But in another way, it’s going to be a major test of Hockey Canada’s scouting and recruiting abilities, and its ability to put together a team and get it to play like a team.

Already, some of the names you’re hearing as possible candidates for Team Canada are interesting. Gilbert Brule. Max Talbot. Derek Roy. Ben Scrivens. Some players who don’t have NHL jobs right now might figure it’s a good way to market their skills. Would an unsigned former star like Jarome Iginla or Shane Doan consider it? Seems unlikely, but maybe.

A compelling team doesn’t have to be a powerhouse. It can be a collection of castoffs or marginal talents who find a way to come together. Perhaps it can be a team, in Canada’s case, that doesn’t go into a competition as the overwhelming favourite, but either as an underdog or one of a number of teams with a chance to be better by the end of a tournament than at the beginning.

Starting at the Sochi Hockey Open next week, Canada will start evaluating potential roster candidates. By February, Canada will have a team. Some of the names you’ll know, some of them you won’t. But by the end, gold or something else, you’ll know the names, and you’ll probably have been entertained by watching them.

That’s how it always worked in the days before the NHL decided the Olympics were where it had to be.

Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering sports for The Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.

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